Digital Commons Network^™

A Remote Sensing Analysis Of The Effects Of Watershed Disturbance And Riparian Integrity On Stream Fish Communities In The Red River Of The North Basin, Nicholas Kludt

Theses and Dissertations

The relationships between fish species guilds, riparian cover, and vegetation disturbances in the surrounding landscape were examined across the 11 western tributaries of the Red River of the North. Archival stream sampling data, collected from 1993-2011 by North Dakota state agencies, were analyzed relative to temporally-appropriate land-cover predictors generated from National Land Cover Database and National Agricultural Imagery Program products.

The 0-30 m riparian cover width was the most influential landscape predictor influencing fish structure. The 0-30 m riparian cover displayed interactive effects with 30-50 m riparian cover width and watershed land-cover disturbance. These riparian scales were identified by a …

Depression, Negative Self-Disclosure, And The Response Of Others On Facebook, Daniel Barrett Landauer

Theses and Dissertations

Depression has a number of deleterious effects on the interpersonal functioning of adolescents and emerging adults. The interpersonal theory of depression posits that depression is developed and maintained by both the behaviors of the individual and the responses of others to the individual. Adolescents and emerging adults are spending a significant amount of time interacting on social networking sites, such as Facebook, yet few studies have looked at the interpersonal behavior of depressed youth in the context of the interpersonal theory of depression. This study examined the interpersonal behavior of 328 emerging adult college students on Facebook using questionnaires related …

Part I: An Approach To The Synthesis Of Plakortethers A-E Part Ii: Rhodium-Catalyzed Intramolecular C-H Insertion On Diazosulfonates And Its Synthetic Applications, Duminda Shiromalee Liyanage

Theses and Dissertations

This research work consists of two independent studies. The first study is the development of a synthetic route to plakortethers A-E along with possible derivatives. The second study focuses on the synthetic applications of rhodium-catalyzed intramolecular C-H insertion on diazosulfonates.

Plakortethers (A-G) represent a set of marine natural products, which contain of a characteristic tetrasubstituted tetrahydrofuran fragment. This group of compounds was isolated from the Caribbean sponge Plakortis simplex. Their selective cytotoxic activity against the RAW 264-7 cell lines (murine macrophage) makes them promising candidates for biological studies and, along with their unusual structure, warrants the synthesis of these natural …

An Experimental Investigation Of The Aerodynamic Losses For An Incident Tolerant Low Pressure Turbine Blade Over Moderate To Low Reynolds Numbers At Engine Representative Mach Numbers, Jonathan Long

Theses and Dissertations

In the interest of reducing airport congestion in the near future, researchers at NASA Glenn Research Facility have envisioned a new civilian transport aircraft which takes off vertically and cruises horizontally at Mach 0.5 using tilt-rotor technology. The engine under development consists of a four stage low pressure (LP) turbine. Many challenges are presented as the engine transitions from 100% shaft speed at takeoff to 54% shaft speed at cruise. The blading in this engine must be designed to optimize fuel efficiency, especially at cruise. The flow conditions in the LP turbine will change significantly from a Reynolds number of …

Dreaming Of Masculinity: The Middle English "Pearl" And The Masculine Space Of New Jerusalem, Kirby Lund

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the gendering of spaces, particularly the city of New Jerusalem in the fourteenth-century Middle English dream vision Pearl. Earlier scholars have gendered this space as feminine based on the appearance of the city landscape. Instead, I examine the city in terms of both form and function to argue that New Jerusalem is a masculine space. In doing so, I hope to recognize the patriarchal control in the poem to demonstrate the masculine construction of the space, not to reinscribe patriarchy as a construct. This analysis combines the spatial theories of Henri Lefebvre and Doreen Massey with performative …

Advanced Reactors And Novel Reactions For The Conversion Of Triglyceride Based Oils Into High Quality Renewable Transportation Fuels, Michael James Linnen

Theses and Dissertations

Sustainable energy continues to grow more important to all societies, leading to the research and development of a variety of alternative and renewable energy technologies. Of these, renewable liquid transportation fuels may be the most visible to consumers, and this visibility is further magnified by the long-term trend of increasingly expensive petroleum fuels that the public consumes. While first-generation biofuels such as biodiesel and fuel ethanol have been integrated into the existing fuel infrastructures of several countries, the chemical differences between them and their petroleum counterparts reduce their effectiveness. This gives rise to the development and commercialization of second generation …

Do Men Matter? A Current Population Survey Study Of Characteristics Affecting Delayed Fertility, Patrick Mobley

Theses and Dissertations

Fertility research has traditionally assumed male fertility behavior was constant, overlooking the role of male economic factors, due largely to data restrictions. I use three models to analyze separate perspectives of data from the 2011 - 2013 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey (CPS) to determine whether male circumstances have a statistically significant effect on fertility behavior. This paper shows that the assumption that male fertility behavior is constant is invalid. Just like women, men prefer childbearing at certain life stages and will delay to maximize their own utility. Student enrollment has a particularly strong …

Potential Juror Credibility Evaluations Of Gay And Lesbian Witnesses, Lisa Mae Olson

Theses and Dissertations

This study looked at whether the sexual orientation of a witness has an effect on a potential juror's determination of the witness's credibility, and examined traits such as respondent gender and college major, that may predict high levels of sexual prejudice. The sample consisted of 379 undergraduate students at a medium sized, upper Midwestern university. Results did not reveal an overall link between witness credibility ratings and sexual orientation, with the gay male witness receiving the highest credibility rankings followed by the heterosexual male witness, heterosexual female witness, and lastly, the lesbian female witness. It does not appear that the …

Perceptions Of Child Abuse And Neglect In Cases Of Intimate Partner Violence, Katlin Rhyner

Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined perceptions of child abuse and neglect within the context of heterosexual intimate partner violence. Participants were asked to read a vignette describing a situation where a child either saw, heard, or was physically injured in an intimate partner violence altercation that took place between his parents. Within abuse exposure condition, the gender of the victim was also varied. Participants were asked to decide the extent to which the situation constitutes child abuse and neglect, as well as how much blame and responsibility should be assigned to each parent involved in the incident. Overall, it was found …

Novel Sustainable Structural Materials By Using Benign Waste Materials, M Faisal Riyad

Theses and Dissertations

We propose a Green Cement Paradigm (GCPa) for fabricating environmentally friendly cementitious materials. By using GCPa, we report for the first time, the usage of Class C Fly Ash as a sole source of cementitous phase without any activation by alkali. During this study, Class C Fly Ash, and its composites with sand were fabricated at different compaction stresses by maintaining a low w/c (w-water, c-cement) ratio of 0.17-0.24 in the compacts. The porosity and the number of days for curing played a significant role in the evolution of compressive strength. The experimental results indicate that the curing for 28 …

The Instruction Of Mindfulness: Developing Standards And Objectives For Mindfulness Training In Graduate Programs, Crystal Rofkahr

Theses and Dissertations

Mindfulness is an effective therapeutic tool for multiple disorders and

conditions. A set of standards, methods, assessments, and teacher characteristics had

not been formulated to effectively teach future mental health providers mindfulness.

This study utilized a Delphi Method to meet this need in the field. This methodology

was used to assemble a panel of experts to provide data on the best practices in teaching

mindfulness. The experts participated in three rounds of data collection. They provided

information pertaining to their ideal and real teaching standards, methods, and

assessments. They, then, narrowed down the concepts in each domain until consensus

was …

Intellectual Property Ownership, Technology Transfer, And Entrepreneurship Education: University Student And Administrator Perspectives, Craig Alan Silvernagel

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods study was designed to investigate student knowledge and attitudes concerning university intellectual property (IP) ownership, and the reaction of campus IP experts to the student perspective. Study participants included 226 students from a Midwestern research university and three employees with IP commercialization experience from that same university. A paper questionnaire was completed by students and the survey results were used to construct questions for semi-structured interviews with the campus IP professionals.

The student survey included demographic questions, Likert-type questions, and open-ended questions. The Likert-type questions were organized into three constructs: Student Knowledge, Student Fears, and Student Attitudes. …

A Collapsar Model For Bright Linear Type Ii Supernovae And Numerical Simulations Of Multiple, Interacting Supernova Remnants, Dean D. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes two projects. Part one applies the collapsar model to Bright Linear Type II supernovae. The collapsar model is commonly used to explain gamma-ray bursts. In this model, a stellar core collapses to a black hole surrounded by an accretion disk. In addition to the supernova caused by the core collapse, the black hole powers a high energy jet. Shocks within the jet create the gamma ray burst while the jet's later interaction with circumstellar material creates an afterglow. In a Type II supernova, the hydrogen envelope of the star results in a lower energy jet that does …

Carbon Farming In Relation To Western Australian Agriculture, Robert Sudmeyer, Jackson Parker, Tanmoy Nath, Ananda Ghose

Bulletins 4000 -

Carbon farming activities need to return multiple economic and environmental co-benefits to be attractive to land managers. This bulletin summarises concepts underlying carbon farming, how Australia accounts for greenhouse gas emissions and the potential for Western Australian land managers to participate in, and benefit from, carbon farming.

Partnering For Success: The Principals' Role In Beginning Teacher-Mentor-Principal Relationships, Rachael Gayle Agre

Theses and Dissertations

This small-scale qualitative study examined the perceptions of elementary principals, mentors and beginning teachers regarding the principal's role in promoting beginning teacher professional growth within comprehensive induction programs. This role may not be clear to principals, mentors, beginning teachers or induction program leaders. In recent years, the call for principal instructional leadership is in the forefront of the literature with increasing emphasis placed on academic standards and accountability. This emphasis is shifting the focus of principal instructional leadership from teaching to student learning. Mentors and principals are working together with beginning teachers to accelerate professional growth and impact student achievement. …

Design And Optimization Of Organic Rankine Cycle For Low Temperature Geothermal Power Plant, Kirtipal Barse

Theses and Dissertations

Rising oil prices and environmental concerns have increased attention to renewable energy. Geothermal energy is a very attractive source of renewable energy. Although low temperature resources (90C to 150C) are the most common and most abundant source of geothermal energy, they were not considered economical and technologically feasible for commercial power generation. Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology makes it feasible to use low temperature resources to generate power by using low boiling temperature organic liquids. The first hypothesis for this research is that using ORC is technologically and economically feasible to generate electricity from low temperature geothermal resources. The second …

Using Reanalysis Data For The Prediction Of Seasonal Wind Turbine Power Losses Due To Icing, Daniel Burtch

Theses and Dissertations

The Northern Plains region of the United States is home to a significant amount of potential wind energy. However, in winter months capturing this potential power is severely impacted by the meteorological conditions, in the form of icing. Predicting the expected loss in power production due to icing is a valuable parameter that can be used in wind turbine operations, determination of wind turbine site locations and long-term energy estimates which are used for financing purposes. Currently, losses due to icing must be estimated when developing predictions for turbine feasibility and financing studies, while icing maps, a tool commonly used …

American Exceptionalism And The Antebellum Slavery Debate, Travis Cormier

Theses and Dissertations

American exceptionalism is the idea that America is or was somehow unique or different compared to other nations throughout history. Many Americans also believed that America had a special mission to be an example to the rest of the world. Many politicians and intellectuals have debated America's exceptionality since the founding of the country. The debate over American slavery during the antebellum era was in many ways a debate over American exceptionalism. Could America claim American exceptionality while they held on to slavery? George Fitzhugh, an ardent supporter of slavery during the antebellum period, argued that America was not exceptional …

Predicting Kidney Transplantation Using Prior Disease Diagnosis From Medicare Claims Data, Jeffrey Dischinger

Theses and Dissertations

Kidney transplant prevalence and costs have been increasing steadily in the past few decades and this trend is anticipated to continue for years to come. Patient outcomes are heavily influenced by the amount of time they are waiting for a transplant and by the quality of care they are receiving up to the transplant. This paper intends to increase positive patient outcomes and decrease costs by identifying potential kidney transplant patients earlier than traditional methods. I use medical claims data to determine common risk factors of all patients who have received a kidney transplant. For the control group I include …

Geometry Of Quivers, Patrick Andrew Durkin

Theses and Dissertations

A quiver is a directed graph, but the term usually implies such a graph is being considered along with representations. These representations consist of vector spaces and linear transformations. We explore some the connections between quivers and geometric structures. To begin, we consider a theorem that says every projective variety can be considered as a quiver Grassmannian. The reasoning of the proof is demonstrated by example. We then prove the existence of a countable quiver containing every finite quiver as a subquiver. Following this we consider some properties of its category of representations. Finally, we give an overview of quiver …

Assessing Student Learning: A U.S./U.K. International Comparative Study, Kristin Anne Garaas-Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the role of assessments of student learning in the United States, specifically a school system in North Dakota, comparatively to that of a school system in Surrey, England. Using a conceptual framework that is influenced by the work of Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, and Chappuis with the Assessment Training Institute (2011) and the Assessment Reform Group (2002) on creating effective, balanced assessments for learning, three questions guided my study:

1. What are secondary (students ages 14-18) educators' beliefs about what, why, how, and for whom school systems are assessing students' learning?

2. What is the difference between educators' …

A Brief Historiography Of The Opium Trade With A New Evaluation Of Dr. William H. Park's Opinions Of Over 100 Physicians On The Use Of Opium In China, Kimberly Gasparini

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a brief historiography of the opium trade between Britain and China from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries, followed by a reexamination of Dr. William H. Park's Opinions of Over 100 Physicians on the Use of Opium in China. While Dr. Park's compilation was critical in the fight to outlaw the legal opium trade, there were inherent problems with the document. R. K. Newman challenged the veracity of this document in 1995, but stopped short of offering an in-depth appraisal of the report. This thesis provides that critique, followed by suggestions for future utilization of this …

The Long-Term Impact Of Educational And Health Spending On Unemployment Rates, Zafer Pirim, William A. Owings, Leslie S. Kaplan

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

This study used panel data regression analysis to evaluate the long-term effects of several measures of U.S. education expenditure on unemployment rates in 50 states and Washington D.C. over 25 years. The data included state-level statistics for fiscal effort, graduation rates, education spending per pupil, gross state product per capita, welfare spending, health spending, political party affiliation, union versus nonunion states, and unemployment rates. Results find that the best way to effectively reduce unemployment is investment in improving the quality of human capital through funding education. Findings specifically conclude that over the long term, investment in human capital through education …

The Association Between Autobiographical Memory Specificity And Memory Sharing In College Students, Nicola Herting

Theses and Dissertations

The way in which memories are stored and communicated makes the construction of autobiographical memories (AM) both an internal process and a social occurrence. Strong associations between reduced AM specificity and psychological adjustment have been found; however, the role significant others have in the socialization and co-construction of AM may have be overlooked. This study examines whether the process of sharing AMs and the perceived benefits of sharing these memories are associated with differences in specificity of AM, as well as explores methodological differences in how AMs are collected. Data from 177 participants was collected on the Most Important Memories …

Software Documentation Guidelines For Maintainability, Justin Roger Huber

Theses and Dissertations

Software maintenance is the final stage in the software engineering process; and can also be the longest and most costly. The ability of, and ease in which software upkeep and change is performed is an important software quality attribute called maintainability. Software maintenance however is an expensive process in both time and financial cost and can account for a majority of a system's overall lifetime cost. It would be beneficial then to have a set of guidelines for obtaining a higher degree of maintainability in software before and after its release and evolution stage in order to limit the cost …

Generating A Characterization Method Utilizing The Visible (0.6-1.0 Μm) Peak Feature To Aid In Identification Of Ordinary Chondrite Parent Bodies, Cassandra Lynne Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Surveys in the visible to near infrared (VNIR) of main belt asteroids which cut off at the 1 micron wavelength prevent adequate characterization for approximately 2500 asteroids. This project aims at surveying spectral data from RELAB and Gaffey's meteorite datasets utilizing the peak feature located between charge transfer and Band I of 224 ordinary chondrite (OC) samples to analyze the peak position shifts with respect to subtypes H-, L- and LL- to generate a new characterization method. This method may make it possible to unite the datasets between the meteorites and asteroids to further constrain and characterize the OC parent …

Measuring The Effect Of Weighted Devices On Exercise Enjoyment, Nicholas Kruse

Theses and Dissertations

Physical activity provides an important health benefit for both males and females. Seven out of every ten U.S. deaths are from chronic disease and many of those deaths could have been preventable. With a lack of physical activity and poor diet, chronic illnesses such as obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type II diabetes were reported, (CDC, 2004). There is a steep decline in exercise from high school to college, which indicates that exercise adherence in college students is an issue. In this study, three conditions were examined with students at the University of North Dakota going through a plyometric protocol …

"You Do Understand This Is Potentially Career Threatening?" A Study Of Public School Principals Who Have Guided Teachers To A Voluntary Exit, Barry Donavon Lentz

Theses and Dissertations

Many people believe that teachers in public education cannot be dismissed. Teachers can be dismissed, but it is a difficult and stressful process. However, some principals are able to guide teachers to voluntarily exit a school system without going through the dismissal process. The literature suggests that many principals believe there are many impediments when attempting to remove a teacher deemed less than competent. This qualitative study examined what successful principals do to remove teachers who have not met a minimum competency according to district expectations. Ten North Dakota principals, who have successfully guided teachers out of a school system …

Differences In Political Contributions Among Men And Women Of The Corporate Elite In The 2008 Federal Election, Keith Ray Mccormick

Theses and Dissertations

The Corporate Elite (CE) has been dominated by white men who have

traditionally contributed to the Republican Party to further corporate business interests. Since the 1970's, a small but growing number of women have attained positions of power and authority in the CE. This trend raises the question of how the arrival of women will affect the political contribution behavior of the CE. This study examines

differences in the number of men and women who contributed to Republicans or Democrats in the 2008 election. Analysis suggests three patterns: (1) men contributed in significantly higher numbers to the Republican Party and …

Advances In The Electrodeposition Of Aluminum From Ionic Liquid Based Electrolytes, Kirt Leadbetter

Theses and Dissertations

Aluminum plating is of considerable technical and economic interest because it provides an eco-friendly substitute for cadmium coatings used on many military systems. However, cadmium has been determined to be a significant environmental safety and occupational health (ESOH) hazard because of its toxicity and carcinogenic nature. Furthermore, the cost of treating and disposing of generated wastes, which often contain cyanide, is costly and is becoming prohibitive in the face of increasingly stringent regulatory standards. The non-toxic alternative aluminum is equivalent or superior in performance to cadmium. In addition, it could serve to provide an alternative to hexavalent chromium coatings used …